The first aircraft to pass the 1000mph mark when piloted by Peter Twiss on 10 March 1956.

Purely a research aircraft, with only two aircraft built, the Fairey FD.2 would hold the record for over a year and give designers a far greater knowledge of high-speed flight before being extensively converted as the Bristol 221 and giving assistance to the Concorde programme of the 1960s. It flew for the final time in 1973 and currently resides in the Fleet Air Arm Museum, Yeovilton.

Darryl Legg's Aviation Art Painting Print shows this most graceful of aircraft in its earlier form with its high speed nature readily apparent.